the youngish black dude next to me at the bar and grill where wewatched the election returns had no idea Barack Obama's dad was fromKenya. I had mentioned that Barack was the first president in mymemory that had an immigrant parent, and he was all like "really?"like he'd never heard of such a thing. Even when I told the "Africandad, Kansan mom" story he seemed unconvinced.

21 months of campaigning. how can folks not know that part of thenarrative? it's like "oh, wait, McCain was in Vietnam?"